Privacy policy

Your privacy is important to us. The purpose of this Statement describes how personal data collected and used by Europe Unlimited S.A. and its affiliated companies and subsidiaries, including Tech Tour International S.A.R.L. and Tech Tour Global EOOD.

Unless otherwise stated, Europe Unlimited S.A. is the data controller for the personal data collected under this statement. A “data controller” refers to the person who determines the purposes for which and the manner in which any personal data are, or are to be, processed. Our address is Place Flagey 7, 1050 Brussels, Belgium, and we are registered in the Belgian Crossroads Bank for Enterprises under enterprise number 0462.923.491 (“Europe Unlimited” or “We”). Our further contact details can be found under point 8 of this Statement.

1. Which personal data do we collect?

We collect information about you from a variety of sources, including:

information we collect from you directly;

information we collect about you when you visit our current and future websites (currently including techtour.com, Iventureclub.com, Investhorizon.eu and eurekainnovest.eu), use our mobile applications or services, or view our online advertisements;

information that you have made publicly available, such as social media posts;

information we collect about you from other sources, such as commercially available sources, nominations by partners and corporate transactions such as mergers or transfers of assets.

Which personal data we collect, depends on your specific situation or request. For example, you may want to give us your name and contact information to communicate with you, to register for an event, or to do business with us if you are a supplier or a business partner. You may also share a description of your experience to be communicated in the framework of an event, a call for application and displayed on the online platform for matchmaking with other members registered on the platform.

We use cookie and other technologies to collect information when you visit our sites, view our online advertisements or promotions, or use our mobile applications or other services. The following are examples of information we may collect with these technologies:

Browser type and language

IP address

Web pages you view

Links you click

E-mails you open

Collecting information in this manner allows us to collect statistics about the usage and effectiveness of our Web sites, personalize your experience and tailor our interactions with you.

From time to time, we may also collect information that pertains to you indirectly through other sources, such as list vendors. When we do so, we ask the vendors to confirm that the information was legally acquired by the third party and that we have the right to obtain it from them and use it.

The information that we collect, either directly or indirectly, may be combined to help us improve its overall accuracy and completeness and to help us better tailor our interactions with you.

2. Why do we need your data?

We use the data we collect for five basic purposes, described in more detail below: (1) to operate our business and provide, improve and personalize the services we offer, including the access to our platform, (2) to send communications, including promotional communications, (3) statistical purposes and aggregate insights, (4) marketing purposes, (5) developing services and customer support.

2.1. Providing and improving our services.

We use data to provide and improve the services we offer, to perform essential business operations, and to allow our users to grow their business. This means that your data is used to allow us to manage events, such as the Tech Tour events, to help entrepreneurs to present their business case and to find partners, to promote entrepreneurs and to operate and improve our online platform, including developing new features, research, and to provide member support.

This implies in more detail, and without being limitative, that we need your data, and where required disclose your data:

to manage events with targeted participants to facilitate participants to meet, share information and develop relationships with partners of their interest. In order to offer better services we organize an application and selection process and the information that users fill as well as information about nominated and selected companies, award winners and expert reviews, is shared among some other community members;

to manage our online platform, i.e. to provide and facilitate online collaboration between community members and facilitate community members to share information about their personal expertise, organizations they are linked to and what they (or the organizations they are linked to) are looking for when collaborating with other community members, as well as sharing news and updates via the online community platform amongst others information and updates about the community members, industry trends, event award winners and expert reviews;

to provide matching to other members;

to select and screen for event participation;

to provide search tools to community members;

to provide you with the benefits and services as a member;

to manage our records;

to manage your membership regarding our web sites or services;

to ensure that content from our web sites is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;

to verify your identity and to respond to any query you may raise with us, and to process your request and provide you with the best service possible;

to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us;

to allow you to participate in interactive features of our services;

to notify you about changes to our services, changes to our terms, conditions, and policies and/or other administrative information;

prevent or detect any misuse or fraud;

for business operations.

We use data to develop aggregate analysis and business intelligence that enable us to operate, protect, make informed decisions, and report on the performance of our business. Some of our services may be co-branded, that is sponsored by both us and third parties. If you sign up for these offerings, be aware that your information may also be collected by and shared with those third parties. We encourage you to familiarize yourself with their privacy policies to gain an understanding of the manner in which they will handle information about you.

2.2. Communications

We use the data we collect to deliver and personalize our communications with you. The information you provide to us, as well as the information we have collected about you indirectly, may be used by us for marketing purposes. For example, we may contact you by email or other means to inform about news related to our services, how to use our services and products, upcoming events, security updates, invitations to participate in a survey, reminders or the need to take action to keep your account active and up to date.

You may at any time choose not to receive marketing materials from us by following the unsubscribe instructions included in each e-mail you may receive, by indicating so when we call you, or by contacting us directly. Our contact details are mentioned hereunder under point 8.

We also enable communications between you and others through our services, including invitations for meetings and messages.

2. 3. Statistical purposes and aggregated insights

We use your data for statistical purposes and to produce aggregate insights. For example, we may use data to generate statistics about number of users, event participants, geographical breakdown, expertise and other, the number of ad impressions served or clicked on, or the demographic distribution of visitors to a site.

We may use such aggregated statistics for marketing purposes.

2. 4.Online advertising

We do not deliver third party online advertisements on our web sites but we advertise our products and services on others' web sites. Please familiarize yourself with those web site operators' or network advertisers' privacy statements to understand a.o. their practices relating to advertising, including what type of information they may collect about your internet usage.

We have also engaged with certain third parties to manage some of our advertising on other sites. These third parties may use cookies and web beacons to collect information (such as your IP address) about your activities on our web site and others' web sites to provide you targeted Europe Unlimited advertisements based upon your interests.

2. 5. Developing services and customer support

We use data, including public feedback, to conduct research and development for the further development of our services in order to provide you and others with a better experience, drive membership growth and engagement on our services, and help connect users to each other and to grow their business.

We use the data (which can include your communications) needed to investigate, respond to and resolve complaints and service issues (e.g., bugs).

3. What are the reasons and legal basis for our processing?

Processing personal data must of course be done for legitimate reasons only.

We use and share your personal data with your consent. Whenever the processing is based on your consent, you are entitled to withdraw your consent. If you want to do so, please contact us. Our contact details are mentioned under point 8 of this Statement.

We use your data as necessary to complete any transaction you have requested or authorized. When you provide payment data to make a purchase, we will share payment data with banks and other entities that process payment transactions or provide other financial services, and for fraud prevention.

In addition, we share personal data with Europe Unlimited-controlled affiliates and subsidiaries, as well as with our partners in case of co-branding partnerships such as co-branded events and services.

We also share personal data with vendors or agents working on our behalf for the purposes described in this Statement. For example, companies we have hired to assist in protecting and securing our systems and services may need access to personal data in order to provide those functions. In such cases, these companies must abide by our data privacy and security requirements and are not allowed to use personal data they receive from us for any other purpose.

We may also disclose personal data as part of a corporate transaction such as a merger or sale of assets.

Finally, we will access, transfer, disclose, and retain personal data, including your content when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to:

comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other government agencies;

protect our members, for example to prevent spam or attempts to defraud users of our platform, or to help prevent the loss of life or serious injury of anyone;

operate and maintain the security of our platform, including to prevent or stop an attack on our computer systems or networks.

Please note that some of our products include links to products of third parties whose privacy practices differ from ours. If you provide personal data to any of those products, your data is governed by their privacy statements. Please familiarize yourself with those their privacy statements to understand their practices.

4. Where do we process and store your data?

Personal data collected by us may be stored and processed in Belgium, or in any other country where our affiliates, subsidiaries or service providers maintain facilities.

We do not intend to transfer personal data from the European Economic Area and Switzerland to other countries.

5. How long do we keep your data?

We will retain your data for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you the requested services. If you wish to request the de-activation of your account, please contact us at support [@] techtour.com. We will retain and use your data as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

6. How do we secure your data?

We intend to protect your personal data and to maintain its accuracy. We implement reasonable physical, administrative and technical safeguards to help us protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure. We also require that our suppliers protect such information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

7. What are your rights?

We adhere to the European and national data protection law applicable in Belgium, which includes the following rights:

if the processing of personal data is based on your consent, you have a right to withdraw consent at any time for future processing;

you have a right to request from us access to and rectification of your personal data;

you can send us a request to the contact details mentioned under point 8 of this Statement. In certain cases, you may have the ability to view or edit your personal information online. Before we are able to correct any inaccuracies, however, we may ask you to verify your identity and to provide other details to help us to respond to your request;

you have a right to object to the processing of your personal data, including the right to object to direct marketing;

you have a right to restrict processing;

you have a right to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority;

you have a right to erasure, also known as ‘the right to be forgotten’. The broad principle underpinning this right is to enable you to request the deletion or removal of personal data whether there is no compelling reason for its continued processing.

8. Any questions or complaints?

Should you have any questions about the processing of your personal data, about exercising your rights or about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us. The contact details are:
Legal [@] techtour.com

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law you can complain to the Privacy Commission. All information can be found at: https://www.privacycommission.be/en.